Tuesday, September 6, 2016

Hollywood Black Film Fest Announces 2017 Dates

Known as one of the leading Black film festivals in the world, the Hollywood Black Film Festival (HBFF) is back after a brief hiatus and the 2017 event is going to be bigger, better and badder than ever!

Now in its fourteenth year, the upcoming edition of Hollywood Black Film Festival will “Festival at the Beach” from February 22nd to February 26th, 2017 in Marina Del Rey, California.

HBFF 2017’s call for submissions is for feature, shorts, student and documentary films, and web series. The festival is also accepting film submissions for the Film Diaspora sidebar competition, idea submissions for Project Stargazer, and scripts for the Storyteller Competition. All submissions will be accepted exclusively through Film Freeway.

HBFF accepts film submissions from all filmmakers, however to be eligible for the festival’s competitive program, one of the film's creative principals, i.e. the writer, director or producer must be Black or of African heritage. All other films will be considered for the festival’s invitational program.

The Film Diaspora sidebar reaches out beyond borders to Black filmmakers from throughout the DIaspora. This sidebar highlights independent films and filmmakers from the African Diaspora, the Caribbean and Latin America.

Project Stargazer, produced in partnership with NASA, will be back for the second year. The program accepts film or TV story ideas (completed scripts not required) that clearly feature NASA technologies, space or earth sciences as integral plot elements in the story. Main characters should represent the diverse panorama of the 21st century.

The Storyteller Competition accepts scripts from black screenwriters who are serious about a career as a screenwriter. Submissions of screenplays of 90-120 pages, on any topic and genre, will be accepted.

Deadlines to submit to HBFF 2017 are as follows:

·July 18, 2016: SUBMISSIONS OPEN.

·September 30, 2016: EARLY DEADLINE

·November 1, 2016: REGULAR DEADLINE

·December 1, 2016: LATE DEADLINE

·December 5, 2016: NOTIFICATION DATE

·February 22- 26, 2017: HBFF 2017 EVENT DATE

Submissions rules and regulations and complete information regarding eligibility for the 2017 Hollywood Black Film Festival are now available at http://www.hbff.org/submit.

HBFF was founded in 1998 by its executive director, Tanya Kersey, with a mission focused on fostering and developing the vision of independent filmmakers by bringing their films to the attention of the industry, media and public through a public exhibition and competition program.

To date, HBFF has screened over 1,000 independent films from Black filmmakers from all across the United States, Europe, SE Asia, Australia, Canada, Africa the Caribbean. Over 70,000 people have attended and enjoyed the diversity of Black Cinema through the festival.